Publicity and transformation through the thematization of non-thematization The German project Initiative Nachrichtenaufklärung and its contribution to transformative communication studies
By Jörg-Uwe Nieland and Hektor Haarkötter | Anyone who might be wondering why the discipline of communication studies receives little attention in media in the form of »public scholarship« must critically question the media’s function to set thematic agendas, by applying theories and methods inherent in science. For almost 30 years, the Initiative Nachrichtenaufklärung (INA) e.V. has been taking on the task to question the media’s function to set themes by confronting the influence of AI and disinformation as well as the power of platforms and the powerlessness of recipients and scholarship. In the spirit of transformative public scholarship, the initiative publishes an annual list of severely neglected news topics after joint research and discussion by scientists, journalists and experts. Educating the public about news is here understood and practiced by providing criticism of the lack of thematization and suppression of news and discourse. In this sense, neglected news is also a category of disinformation. This article presents the research findings on »negative news value theory«, »agenda cutting« and »junk news«.